Free to believe in good

Eighty years of freedom, freedom won at a high price, recognized as the foundation of our national life by the pages of the Constitution. Freedom of the individual but which is always achieved in a community.
Freedom that is always responsibility towards the common good. Ernesto Olivero, Sergio Mattarella, David Sassoli and Luca Jahier remember it with their words

Today it seems that the entire civilized world that we have known since childhood has become barbaric, making us go back in time, to those dark centuries in which brute force was in command, not the ingenuity of invention, not the wisdom of construction, not the search for knowledge. Everything that makes man man, everything that makes a continent civilized seems to no longer count in the eyes of many, lost behind the flag of immediate personal interest. Cost what it may. We wage war with weapons and financial speculation, sometimes even just for the mirage of reserved and exclusive economic enrichment.

As a Christian, I think this is happening because the world has distanced itself from God. The end of the story? I am convinced that it is not, that a new story can begin, starting from the places where people are fighting for a piece of land in Ukraine, South Sudan, the Horn of Africa. Starting from the Holy Land. I am still convinced that if these two peoples – the Israelis and the Palestinians – who have so far looked too much at the self and too little at God – learn to live together, to listen to the words of wisdom that God has given them in the sacred texts, they will live free from hatred, and Jerusalem will truly be the world capital of Peace, as its very name suggests.
I am still convinced that the wise and good who live in territories devastated by war can catalyze the best forces of society. That the wise and good who inhabit Europe, the American states and every continent, can still teach us dedication to others, honesty, humility in recognizing one’s own wrongs, free service free from partisan interests.
I am still convinced that many people involved in politics today can help us take a step deeper, drawing inspiration from the great sages who preceded them, providing the example that even from the rubble of war one can rise again by making a pact of peace. Rediscovering together - as Sirach says - the reasons and meaning of one's commitment to the common good. The recent anniversary of the Liberation of April 1945 brings to mind the value of freedom witnessed by the sacrifice of many who gave up their lives to ensure it again for everyone. These people now pass the baton to each of us, simple citizens of this world in flames. With determination and trust, let us help many with the example of an honest life to find the path of wisdom. To put this world in pieces back together, to heal the fracture generated by inequalities that cause a dull resentment that makes the heart closed and impervious to the pain of the other, seen as an enemy of my good, an enemy of my peace. I continue to believe that the good, the beautiful, the true can still be the heritage of humanity.

Ernesto Olivero
Editorial
NP May 2025